HR Business Partner

Job summary

MHCLG is at the heart of the government's agenda for change, aimed at growing the economy and improving people's lives right across the United Kingdom. We do this by empowering local communities, rebuilding local government, delivering the homes people need, ensuring building safety, enabling social cohesion and supporting local growth. People are at the heart of everything we do in MHCLG, and naturally we take pride in our own open and collaborative culture.

Our People, Capability & Change (PC&C) directorate plays a critical role in developing our inclusive and high-performing workforce. We are an exciting, fast-paced place to work, and we operate as a single team, working flexibly across themes as required, to use our combined knowledge and expertise in the most effective and efficient way. We expect our people to be curious and engage positively with other Government departments and external stakeholders across the public and private sectors to understand the wider context of our work and to identify current and emergent best practice. We promote closer working across Government to meet the challenges of the future and we invest in our continued professional development.

We are looking for a HR Business Partner to join the HRBP team in MHCLG’s People, Capability and Change Directorate (PC&C). The HRBP team is a supportive and high-performing team with a variety of experiences where diversity of thought is welcome and encouraged.

HR Business Partners are trusted advisers for senior leaders at Director level to enable the delivery of their objectives through their people priorities, which can include:

• Organisational change.
• Planning the current and future size and shape of the workforce against workplans.
• Building capability and supporting employees to perform at their best.
• Advising on creating a diverse and inclusive organisation.
• Promoting staff wellbeing and supporting initiatives to promote wellbeing in the organisation.
• Providing strategic HR advice to business strategy and plans, diagnosing and advising on people implications and risks.

HR Business Partners also work with colleagues across PC&C to support the delivery of people priorities by providing business insight into people strategy and initiatives, and also helping to adapt the work programme for the HR function as the Department’s context, needs and priorities shift. HR Business Partners also work closely with other corporate teams, especially Finance.

Job description

Responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Building and managing relationships and partnerships - influencing, consulting, negotiating, and securing the confidence of senior stakeholders.
• Providing challenge and influence at senior management team level to deliver objectives.
• Using data and evidence to make decisions and influence - interpreting complex data at an operational and strategic level to create and present evidence based insight. Using data to highlight risks to customers and to drive excellence in HR systems and practice.
• Capability building - effectively coaching and mentoring, both on an individual and team level, to drive high performance. Enhancing the capability of others, taking into consideration the needs of different groups, to raise standards and drive delivery.
• Leading transformation and change - leading delivery of people focused transformational change management programmes and managing cultural change.
• Applying employment law or employee relations principles.

Person specification

• Essential: CIPD Level 5 with previous HRBP or equivalent HR experience
• Experienced in building strong, trust-based partnerships with a range of senior stakeholders and the ability to influence, constructively challenge and provide appropriate feedback.
• Evidenced problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands.
• Experience of analysing and using data to understand implement and measure the success of people based initiatives.
• Experience working with ambiguity, using curiosity and initiative to develop ways of getting the best outcomes that meet business need.
• Able to maintain personal effectiveness in the face of pressure, set-backs of when dealing with challenging situations.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,092, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £16,829 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Staff Benefits Scheme, Childcare Vouchers, and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Application and Selection

The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Strengths

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Experience: Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page: Please note that your supporting statement must include a response to the following question:

Can you describe how you have operated to influence, challenge and resolve complex HR issues with senior leaders? Please outline your approach and how you ensured the desired outcome was achieved?

You may include additional relevant information within your statement, provided the overall submission does not exceed the one-page limit.

If you run into any technical problems when applying through Be Applied (for example, trouble logging in or submitting your application), their support team can help. Please contact them at hello@beapplied.com.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Seeing The Bigger Picture, Leadership, Communicating and Influencing.
• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Candidates will be asked to prepare a presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 06/07.

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 13/07 and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

If we have more suitable candidates than roles available, we’ll put those who meet the standard on a reserve list for 6 months. We’ll tell you if you’re on a reserve list.

Whilst on a reserve list, you may be offered a job at the same or lower grade than the one you applied for. Jobs will be offered in merit order.

Disability Confident Scheme (DCS)

We are a Disability Confident employer.

We apply a fair and proportionate interview process for all candidates. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to progress candidates who apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and meet the required minimum selection criteria.

However, where high application volumes are received, progression to interview may be limited to those who best meet the role criteria. In these circumstances, the benchmark required to proceed to interview may be raised for all candidates.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Internal Fraud Database

• Appeals and Complaints

• Fixed Term Appointments for:

• External Candidates

• Existing Civil Servants (Including Loans)

• Secondments

• MHCLG employees

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office:

London Office: + CTC

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Sarah Draper
• Email : Sarah.Draper@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk